Do you ever find yourself confused about where you stand with the guy you like? Are you and your makeshift significant other doing relationship things, but not enough for it to count as a relationship? As defined by Google, a situationship is, “a romantic or sexual relationship that is not considered to be formal or established.”
A situationship is something that has become popularized in modern society by Gen Z. A situationship adds to the process of navigating love, which in itself is not easy. Over the last few years, the Gen Z view on love and relationships has taken an unexpected turn.
Love is supposed to be a strong bond shared between two people that want to learn, grow, and thrive together. When you are in love, you want to see the person you love excel and succeed.
In situationships, you put time and energy into a person, sexual or not, but still he or she proceeds to tell you they do not want a relationship. In the last three years, Gen Z has popularized this view of love where being “toxic” is something to expect or want when being with someone.
When someone is toxic, it is like they do everything in their power to keep you from moving on or vice versa. Being in a situationship leaves you vulnerable because one person forms the bond as if it is a relationship whereas the other is convinced it is not that at all.
Situationships can go one of two ways: it ends amicably and both parties move on and live life, or one or both parties cannot move on and it goes back and forth until it leaves one, or both, emotionally scarred.
Anytime you hear the word situationship, it has a high chance of being associated with something that may result in a not-so-happy ending, and the word situationship raises quite a lot of red flags.
Why are we letting a word that was originally defined by the Urban Dictionary define the terms of a relationship? It kind of falls along the line of being a trend; it started and was popularized by social media and once it is done it will be dropped like an irrelevant story.
Why has your love story been determined by a trend? Situationships are happening more and more and are constantly trending on TikTok. People post their situationship stories and it blows up every time because a lot of people can relate to it.
Being in a situationship is a dangerous game. It is not love, it is more like infatuation. Just how a relationship may not be for everyone, the same goes for a situationship. In a situationship, there is that constant confusion about whether or not you and the person have a relationship or not.
The biggest red flag or tell sign to let you know if you are stuck in a situationship is when they say things like, “I don’t want a relationship but I like how things are now,” or, “why do we have to label it?”
Honestly, it is best to know yourself before entering a situationship or a relationship, it is hard to be invested in someone else when you hardly know how to handle yourself. Get to know yourself, your likes and dislikes before dragging another person into the mix.